Posted on 09/19/2007 7:14:10 PM PDT by pissant
DENVER (AP) — James Dobson, one of the nation's most politically influential evangelical Christians, made it clear in a message to friends this week he will not support Republican presidential hopeful Fred Thompson.
In a private e-mail obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, Dobson accuses the former Tennessee senator and actor of being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on issues dear to social conservatives.
"Isn't Thompson the candidate who is opposed to a Constitutional amendment to protect marriage, believes there should be 50 different definitions of marriage in the U.S., favors McCain-Feingold, won't talk at all about what he believes, and can't speak his way out of a paper bag on the campaign trail?" Dobson wrote.
"He has no passion, no zeal, and no apparent 'want to.' And yet he is apparently the Great Hope that burns in the breasts of many conservative Christians? Well, not for me, my brothers. Not for me!"
The founder and chairman of Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family, Dobson draws a radio audience in the millions, many of whom who first came to trust the child psychologist for his conservative Christian advice on child-rearing.
Gary Schneeberger, a Focus on the Family spokesman, confirmed that Dobson wrote the e-mail. Schneeberger declined to comment further, saying it would be inappropriate because Dobson's comments about presidential candidates are made as an individual and not as a representative of Focus on the Family, a nonprofit organization restricted from partisan politics.
Dobson's strong words about Thompson underscore the frustration and lack of unity among Christian conservatives about the GOP field. Some Christian right leaders have pinned their hopes on Thompson, describing him as a Southern-fried Ronald Reagan. But others have voiced doubts in recent weeks about some of the same issues Dobson highlighted: his position on gay marriage and support for the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
Dobson and other Christian conservatives support an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would bar gay marriage nationally. Thompson has said he would support a constitutional amendment that would prohibit states from imposing their gay marriage laws on other states, which falls well short of that.
Karen Hanretty, a spokeswoman for the Thompson campaign, said Wednesday in response to the Dobson e-mail: "Fred Thompson has a 100 percent pro-life voting record. He believes strongly in returning authority to the levels of government closest to families and communities, protecting states from intrusion by the federal government and activist judges.
"We're confident as voters get to know Fred, they'll appreciate his conservative principles, and he is the one conservative in this race who can win the nomination and can go on to defeat the Democratic nominee."
In his e-mail addressed "Dear friends," Dobson includes the text of a recent news story highlighting Thompson's statement that while he was baptized in the Church of Christ, he does not attend church regularly and won't speak about his faith on the stump.
U.S. News and World Report quoted Dobson earlier this year as questioning Thompson's commitment to the Christian faith — comments Dobson contended were not put in proper context. Dobson in this week's e-mail writes that suppositions "about the former senator's never having professed to be a Christian are turning out to be accurate in substance."
Earlier this year, Dobson said he wouldn't back John McCain because of the Arizona senator's opposition to a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.
Later, Dobson wrote on a conservative news Web site that he wouldn't support former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani should he win the Republican nomination. Dobson called Giuliani an "unapologetic supporter of abortion on demand" and criticized him for signing a bill in 1997 creating domestic-partnership benefits in New York City.
Last week, Dobson announced on his radio show that the IRS had cleared him of accusations that he had endangered his organization's nonprofit status by endorsing Republican candidates in 2004. The IRS said Dobson, who endorsed President Bush's re-election bid, was acting as an individual and not on behalf of the nonprofit group.
Hi Saundra,
Understand that to me Mormon’s as people are just people, as good, bad, ordinary, and extraordinary as all of us. There isn’t a bit of animosity towards Mormons as a group in me or in most Christians. For those outside of Utah and a few states in the west, we rarely come in contact with Mormons. Online here at Free Republic, I think you get a lot of former Mormons who had some bad done to them either when they were in the church or when leaving the church, so they may have personal feelings about it. For me, it’s not personal, I just looked at Mormonism as Romney began his run for President, and I realized the extent and nature of the Mormon church as a cult that has lasted over a hundred years. It’s the mixture of lies with the truth that is so dangerous in Mormonism to the individual Mormon, because they can point to good and true things and feel like it somehow erases the false and the harmful. I truly believe, from what I know of the Mormon history, that Joseph Smith with his “seer stones,” false “translations” of Egyption hyroglyphics, 15 or so “wives” (many married to other men as well as him), etc., I believe he was a low level con man that started a small cult and used his followers. So for me, Mormonism is a tragedy, since it is so transparently false given its founder Joseph Smith, and because there is several million modern Mormons who remain fooled by a man long dead. Men won’t become God . . . to anyone, ever. It’s a false and dangerous doctrine. There is one God. There is no one else like him . . . he alone is God. Anway, I hope some day you see some of this and it saves you.
Godspeed.
Greg
No not all faiths feel that way, also what you are saying is an opinion which you try to give the perception and not a fact.
2- The reasons are that you are polytheists, believing in many gods; that you believe that you can become gods (which is the oldest of the lies of Satan);
We are not poly at all that is your distortion of what the LDS beleive.
I call it Godhead that the Father and Son & Holy Ghost, are 3 personages and you call it Trintiy and that they are 3 in one, but I would not berate you, nor your doctrine!
3-that you follow “scripture” that contradicts the Bible; that you deny the absolute truth of the Bible;
It is your choice to work with a half a loaf which creates a lack of understanding so to your mind it seems to contradict which when understood by the Holy Ghost one is filled with Joy!
4-that you condemn Christians as apostate; that you believe Joseph Smith takes part in your judgement at the end of time before Christ; etc.
The Church does not condemn because for the apostaty it is something that happen to you not something you did, when this took place you were not even born!
5-Am I a Mormon? If no, then who (put in a haughty tone here) “appointed you arbiter?”
You are the one calling our doctrine from Satan I would not call asking that question Haunty I would call it reasonable it is you who was judging us from an unrigheous place!
I am a convert by the power of the Holy Ghost and you will hear simular from converts why they move on from MS religion seeking answers and being fullfil in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!
I wish those who are satisfied and comfotable in their faith God Bless.
Like I said you are judging the LDS from your natural man finite mind it is not from the spirit of righteousness which does not even seem to phase you when it is pointed out to what the Bible says!
You know the Bible you claim to honor but seem to pick and choose instead of what the Lord counsel!
Whether directly or indirectly when you call our prophet false and our doctrine from the devil you are calling the LDS fools and liar and hypocrtes!
You mock and make fun of the inherent attributes of the Holy Ghost in how the Holy Spirit communicates with a child of God.
If you only had one in the Godhead the Jewish people would not have disputed with Jesus!
Your post is nonsense. Your statement that Hitler “revived Christianity in Europe” is bogus and insulting to Christians. Here is a link to the OSS (office of strategic services) report for the Nuremberg trials regarding Hitler’s persecution of the Christian churches:
http://www.geocities.com/nazis_persecuted_churches/part-one.html
Read it, it’s PDF and not super-easy, but beginning at Document 4 (the table of contents) it is readable and it’s worth it. If you are intellectually honest, after reading it, you should apologize for spreading leftist anti-Christian propaganda.
ROFL!!!
Is that the best you can do?
You yourself have shown on this thread just how dangerous you people are. You are denigrating Mormons because they will not submit to your demands to believe as you do.
The Nazis denigrated Jews and Gypsies. You denigrate Mormons and Wiccans but the message of intolerance and hate has remained the same.
Infra dig.
I win!
The real question is who is left he could support? Hunter? Not really running very strongly at this point but neither was Bush 2 or Clinton on their first runs at this point. As a matter of fact for those thinking that whoever has the lead now makes any difference, Bush did not take the lead until halfway through the primary election, McCain was winning those first states until he showed his true colors and became know as McCainiac and Bush came from behind to win the primary, but it was a close thing for a while because of McCains head start from what I remember.
“Want more?”
No. Still waiting for the first example that can be taken seriously.
You do not pay taxes to the church.
And Robertson does not receive tax dollars from the government.
Try again.
As I posted earlier, you do not pay taxes to the church.
And Robertson does not receive tax funding, except if, as you claim, his organization provides tightly regulated contractual services to feed the poor or rehabilitate drug addicts or some other social services function in which a “faith-based” organization has proven to be more effective at it than the government.
You wouldn’t pay lower taxes if the same tax money was spent on some strictly secular bureaurcy instead.
“Faith-based” initiatives fall under the larger category of privatization, which any good free-marketer applauds as a more efficient use of govt funds — unless, of course, you believe “faith-based” private organizations should be discriminated against specifically on the basis that they’re faith-based, even if they’re willing to contract to provide some service the government wants cheaper or more effectively than the govt welfare bureaucracy.
You and I’d probably agree that the govt oughtta get out of a lot of “social servicing” stuff they do, period, regardless of whether they deliver the service via private contractual or public bureaucratic means.
None of which excuses your ridiculous assertion that modern-day evangelical Christian Americans are comparable to Hitler’s Brownshirts (who were, as a matter of historic fact, led by homosexuals).
Or your ridiculous, unsupported assertions that the Arlington Group’s goal is to take over America “at the point of a gun” or that evangelical Christians have “taken over” the Republican Party or that the Repub Party has been “destroyed.”
I listened to the band you manage. Good stuff!
I will defend this man unless there is irreproachable evidence of being on the take.
_________________________
I did a little checking because of this thread regarding Dobson’s finances. He doesn’t even take a salary from his ministry anymore. No money to him from Focus on the Family.
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